Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Annoying Things You Can Do To Be Blocked on Facebook

A few days ago, I wrote a post on how to be really bad at Twitter and lose the interest of your followers, mostly by annoying them. I thought I would counter with a few things that are equally annoying on Facebook and can cause you to get blocked there as well. I'll admit, my tolerance for Facebook annoyances may be higher than for Twitter, just because I don't frequent Facebook as often, but I still try to avoid these things where I can.

Being Offensive

Again, just like Twitter, posting offensive material that targets a particular group of people will likely cause someone to click that Block link by your name. If you only want people who believe the same beliefs to see your posts, you're probably in the clear. Until you are applying for a job or going on a date or anything else where someone sees your profile. Offending groups of people never pays off, in my opinion.

Tagging Without Permission

Some people take close care of their Facebook account and who can see what information. Others throw caution to the wind and post every detail about their lives. When a person used to sharing everything uploads a picture of a person or tags someone in a photo or post who is hyper-sensitive to privacy without their permission, conflict ensues. Sure, Facebook makes it easy to untag yourself or remove items from your timeline, but for some, that does not go far enough. So, they may block you to prevent that behavior again. In this instance, I think there's not much that can be done. The adult way to handle those sorts of privacy issues would be to untag yourself, set your privacy settings appropriately, and send a message to the person asking them not to tag you. But some people can't be bothered with effort to resolve internet disputes.

Take A Stand, On Everything

The Facebook community seems to have more tolerance (or maybe it is just people that I see in my timeline) for people posting or sharing extreme political beliefs and pushing them constantly, as if they were running for office. No matter which side of the political fence you are on, though, I do not particularly want your shared articles from your favorite-(left-or-right)-wing-biased news source that you think will somehow convince the entirety of the Internet to vote for your chosen candidate or see the error in their entire belief system and follow you to the light. Chances are, it's a link to an internet article, which means it has to be true, right?

Vaguebooking

"I might have something going on but I just can't type it right now." Your attempts to elicit anticipation from the crowds of friends that you have on Facebook is more likely to annoy than excite. Trying to be vague about the details of your post will likely generate some questions in the comments, but then it will start to annoy everyone, making them think you are a (no, not poetic artistic soul) whiny self-indulgent brat who thinks you are so important that your friends are enthralled by your life.

The Not-So-Humble-Brag

So whether it is the humble bragging ("I honestly can't believe that I got chosen for that Nobel Prize. All those late nights in the lab paid off, but I would have never thought it would come to this") or the self-deprecating story that actually highlights something completely different ("Can you believe I got a nail stuck in the two front tires of my Ferrari and they can't even fix it? I am going to have to drive the Bugatti for the next week while it is in the shop"), nobody wants to hear it. I am sure you are wonderful, as do the rest of your friends. That's why we're your Facebook friends, right? Still, if you accomplished something, and you are proud of it, just say it ("I am so excited about throwing that no hitter!"). At least you would be genuine.

Miss Your Audience

I don't know how you prep for this one other than only being friends with people exactly like you, but some people get quite turned off by posts from people in a totally different life point or interest set than you. If you incessantly post about your kids, working out, how much you are working, or your back-to-back vacations (separated by that party in Cabo), you might disconnect with your audience. If you have a topic that you are passionate about and trying to promote, you might consider setting up an interest group or page instead of dropping those gems in your timeline.

More?

I am certain that I have listed only a subset of the many ways to be completely obnoxious on Facebook. If you have another one, drop by my Facebook page and let me know.